We welcomed Blackboard MVP, Dr. Szymon Machajewski, as our guest speaker at our 7-5-2018 KBUG Meeting! His session was a great teaser for anyone interested in using gamification in a Blackboard course. Check out the session recording and slides for more information.

Gamification is a trend in business and in pedagogy.This session will help faculty and system administrators gain insight on immersive feedback environments and redirecting failure into a progress indicator. Juul submits that we play games to seek out failure (Juul, 2013). Humans desire the feeling of competence and success, but only when it feels deserved. Games create the environment, where grunt work, or skill practice, allow the player to have a good relationship with failure. Games create the feeling that we are escaping failure, escaping inadequacy, by continually trying to get better at the task. This behavior is fundamental to learning, so it is of no surprise that playing games has been found beneficial to learning (Granic, Lobel, & Engels, 2014). Structuring assignments and other course activities into gamified environments further promotes student and faculty engagement. Active learning techniques are a short game approach, which can be complemented by long game mechanics such as grades, Blackboard digital badges, and experience points.Adoption of specific digital tools allows for gamification of large enrollment introductory courses (Machajewski, 2017).